As resistance grows against the Coastal GasLink pipeline and the massive RCMP invasion of Wet’suwet’en territories, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Canada, meeting over the Feb. 8-9 weekend in Toronto, sends greetings of solidarity to all who are in struggle today for Indigenous rights and environmental justice.
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Malgré les discours des politicien-ne-s et des chefs d’entreprise à propos de la «réconciliation» et du «respect des droits autochtones», l’invasion du territoire traditionnel Wet’suwet’en dans le centre-nord de la Colombie-Britannique par la Coastal GasLink (CGL) et la GRC se poursuit. À la suite de la récente ordonnance de la Cour suprême de Colombie Britannique privilégiant les intérêts des pipelines et l’extraction des ressources, le Parti communiste du Canada exprime sa pleine solidarité avec les chefs héréditaires Wet’suwet’en et les autres défenseur-dresse-s des terres, et se prononce pour l’expulsion de CGL de ce territoire traditionnel.
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Despite the rhetoric by politicians and corporate bosses about “reconciliation” and “respect for Indigenous rights,” the invasion of Wet’suwet’en traditional territory in north-central British Columbia by Coastal GasLink (CGL) and the RCMP continues. In the wake of the latest B.C. Supreme Court injunction prioritizing the interests of resource extraction pipelines, the Communist Party of Canada expresses our full solidarity to the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and other land defenders, and for the eviction of CGL from this traditional territory.
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The Communist Party of Canada welcomes today’s Federal Court of Appeal ruling which overturns the federal government’s approvals to build the Trans Mountain expansion project. This decision builds upon decades of legal and political struggles by Indigenous peoples in British Columbia and across Canada; it is truly a historic victory over the resource extraction corporations and other capitalist interests which have dominated this country since Confederation, and going back to the time of European colonization. Continue reading »
The federal Liberal government’s $4.5 billion purchase of the TransMountain pipeline expansion project is a bonanza for Kinder Morgan shareholders, but a disaster for Indigenous peoples, the environment, and communities along the pipeline route. The Communist Party of Canada calls on Parliament to reject this dangerous sellout, and instead to move away from reliance on extraction and export of raw materials, towards energy and resource policies that protect the interests of people and the environment, and respect Canada’s commitments to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the Paris Agreement. Continue reading »
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won the 2015 election largely by pledging to take a different course than the Harper Conservatives on many key issues. This included his call for a new nation-to-nation relationship between Canada and Indigenous peoples, full acceptance of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and promises to act on all the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). If these promises had actually been carried out, this would have meant a sharp break with the historic policies of both the Liberal and Conservative parties, which have always imposed various forms of colonial, assimilationist and genocidal policies upon the Indigenous peoples within the borders of the Canadian state. Continue reading »
The Federal Liberals’ support for the Trans Mountain pipeline makes a mockery of any promise to give Indigenous peoples the veto on developments affecting them, and to recognize Indigenous sovereignty while also trashing commitments on climate change. The difference between Tory all-out support for all pipelines, up to and including climate change denial, and Liberal support for some pipelines, despite their intended reform of the environmental review process, is at best stylistic. There is no difference of substance. Continue reading »
On National Aboriginal Day, June 21, the Communist Party of Canada sends our warmest greetings to all First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. We take this important occasion to renew our solidarity with the resistance against the expansion of resource extraction industries on traditional indigenous territories, and with all those who stand for an end to racist oppression of indigenous peoples in this country.
Just ten days after June 21, hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent by the federal government to mark “Canada 150”. This year’s July 1 holiday is not a day of celebration for millions of working people who suffer from growing economic insecurity, and especially for indigenous peoples who face the highest rates of unemployment, poverty, health crises, incarceration, police violence, and countless other measures of inequality. For indigenous peoples, being forced to pay for this “party” with their own tax dollars is a bitter insult, especially since these events are being held by the Liberal Party government of Justin Trudeau, who won the electoral support of many indigenous voters two years ago, when he campaigned as a leader who would heal the damage inflicted by Stephen Harper’s Tories. Continue reading »
People’s Voice newspaper commentary
The shocking attack on Oct. 17 by RCMP officers against anti-fracking protesters in New Brunswick sends a clear signal that the Canadian state and the Harper Conservative government want to smash the growing resistance by Aboriginal peoples, environmentalists and other forces which oppose the destructive profiteering of transnational energy monopolies, such as the Houston-based Southwest Energy company (SWN).
People’s Voice and the Communist Party of Canada join with all democratic and progressive people in condemning this brutal police violence. The Oct. 21 decision by the Court of Queen’s Bench to lift SWN’s injunction, which had been filed to end the blockade protecting Mi’kmaq traditional territory from fracking, is a major victory, and makes clear that the RCMP attack was completely unjustified. Continue reading »